“When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship; what’s more, you reflect what you worship not only back to the object itself but also outward to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sexual objects [rather than sexual persons]. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns. These and a thousand other forms of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and those whose lives they touch. My suggestion is that it is possible for human beings so to continue down this road, so to refuse all whisperings of the good news, all glimmerings of the true light, all promptings to turn and go the other way, all signposts to the love of God, that after death they become at last, by their effective choice, beings that once were human but now are not, creatures that have ceased to bear the image at all. With the death of that [image bearing] body, they pass not only beyond hope, but also beyond pity….Those creatures… still exist [but] in an ex-human state”. (Surprised by Hope, pp. 182-83)
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